A few months back a friend and I were involved in a discussion with a former-Protestant-now-Roman Catholic named Joel on a Challies post. We still talk about this particular exchange:
Joel:“I expected to see idolatrous Marian devotion pervading every fiber of the Catholic’s being, only to find that most Catholics don’t think about Mary all that much at all. She’s a much bigger deal to Protestants than to Catholics.”
Katie:“I am not sure where you are looking in your Catholic church but the ones I know of are filled with Mary statues and shrines. Crowns on her head, flowers at her feet, special songs, holy days etc. Just think of how many prayers on the rosary are to Mary.”
Joel:“Katie, don’t confuse superficial things with doctrinal ones. My own parish has a statue of Mary inside, the Fatima image, because the parish is called Our Lady of Fatima. We put crowns on her head and load her down with honorary titles and flowers, but none of those titles is Savior, Redeemer or God.”
I wonder what they would do to the Mary statue if they DID think about her much…
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5 comments:
Ironically, now we have a protestant blog with an "idolatrous" image of Mary on it.
This Joel guy appears never to have been to S America or Spain.
"I wonder what they would do to the Mary statue if they DID think about her much…"
You are right. It depends on the Roman Catholic's "private interpretation."
"This Joel guy appears never to have been to S America or Spain."
...and the Philippines too. As a Filipino, I myself have seen how Roman Catholic veneration of images is nothing but idolatrous worship.
Roman Catholic apologist Steve Ray has some Roman Catholic friends here in my country. I wonder if he has already seen the idolatrous "feast of the black nazarene" in the city of Manila.
Excellent post!
Albert my amigo,
Yes indeed, actually these Prots turning RC are actually crypto-prots, they bring their Prot into RC. In other words, they look at RC piety as optional. For example, I doubt if they do novenas to St. Jude or whoever saint, pray the Rosary, do stations of the Cross, do church pilgrimage during easter etc. So I wonder if they really have become RCs, because some of these folk I talked with in the internet have not done most RC devotions.
Now that black nazarene in Manila, I remember, I can still smell the flowers ('sampagitas'), we used to kiss the feet of that black nazarene.
What is the philosophy adopted by Mother Church back in P.I.? Simply this - 'hey you do not have to leave, you can have what you want here too'. You want happy clappy worship - we'll give you that. You want 3 dimensional statue adoration, we'll give you that. You want Bible Study like Prots, we'll give you that. You can have everything in the RC, it is big enough to accommodate everybody.
When I see these Prots turned RCs who equal their devotional practices similar to those in Latin America and Philippines, then I will credit them and admit, they have become RCs. I will shake their hands and say 'you have really come to Rome'.
LPC
Thank you, Carrie, for my laugh for today. Great post!
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